Details

Category: Feature
Media: Video
Turnaround time: More than a week but less than a month

Description of story

A small African-American church in Concord uses theater camp to reach out and teach its children about life. The church has attracted world class theater professionals to work on its staff and be positive role models for the kids. The camp is putting on "The Lion King"

Feedback requested

Basic critique on story, video and editing. I feel the story is too adult heavy for the subject, but out of the three interviews we did with the kids, I didn't have anything usable to fit the story I was trying to tell.

Gear used in production

First let me say this. During my time doing video for tv and newspapers, I know these types of stories are a nightmare to shoot. Lighting is usually mixed, it's a huge space, kids are running all over the place, it's nearly impossible getting a shot without something distracting in the background, and just finding a quiet place to do an interview can be tough. Then you have music running through most of your b-roll, which means you can't treat it as normal nat sound. Watching this brought back many memories of many difficult shoots. So I'm guessing this wasn't an easy project. But kudos to you for successfully putting this together.

My thoughts (for what they're worth):

Things I liked:

-loved that you used music in several spots of the video.

-great nat sound of children being directed by adults.

-like the shot of the kids rolling out the mat at 1:18

-like the wide shot at 1:57

-some good sots about what the kids are learning

Suggestions for improvement:

-What is the story/why should we care? I thought it took too long to set up the reason for the story. The sot at 1:30, and the sots about the wine bags at 3:00 tell us why we should care, but they come too late in the video.

-Audio has a 'digital' sound on the interviews.

-I think you could have cut the story in half and made it more compelling. Tell us these kids are learning life lessons while having fun, and then show that.

-Some shots are shaky or off balance (2:30). Keep the tripod handy.

-Here's the one thing I was waiting for and never saw: an extreme close up of the kids faces. I would suggest sitting some of the kids down and getting a close up of each of their faces for b-roll. Might really add some emotion.